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With cheery hue winking in welcome

its weight feels friendly in my palm,

chilled dimples hinting of laughter inside.

The knife slides smoothly around its equator,

an explorer eager to crisscross the globe

in search of the beneath.

With gentle pressure one thumb peers in

while its twin peels back nature’s

spongy leather, bated breath

met with sudden tang – vitality!

beckoning me to breathe the summer breezes

wafting from within these hemispheres.

In holy hush I listen to the story

of rinds unfurling, treasure-releasing,

a mother’s womb at mission’s end.

Soon fingers delve deeper,

splitting the pulpy crescents in my quest;

diaphanous walls break to reveal

golden diamonds glistening,

their spurts a cry - jubilation!

Sight and sound, smell and touch are

met at last by their sister sense –

Sour and sweet slide across my tongue

as teeth chew over their daily discovery.

Swallowing satisfaction in the flowing juice,

I rest at journey’s end in day’s beginning

wondering where I might sail next.

Rennes, France

April 24, 2020
Dedicated to my mom, who still teaches me to savor 💛

Photos by Halle and by Xiaolong Wong on Unsplash

Unknowing

They blindfolded me,

spun me around three times and

told me to go straight for the goal.

No time to grow accustomed to the darkness,

to let the vertigo settle,

to acknowledge I knew not the way

Donkey tail pinched between fingers,

my feet made their foray

only to be met with laughter,

the sure sign that

I had missed the mark.

Years later as the planet holds its breath,

humanity assailed by an invisible enemy,

I find my soul reconnecting with this

birthday party bewilderment

But this time, amidst my dizziness

I get to choose –

to stand quite still and let swirling

sands settle to the riverbed,

to release strategizing, projecting, planning,

to ignore the internal taskmasters urging me onward

and plop right down to Befriend Unknowing,

trusting myself into the tender hands of El Roi*,

whose all-seeing eyes were once themselves

banded in shadows as mocking laughter

spewed like lava from the Earth’s underbelly.

But those insults had no power to

draw this God-man off course.

As his followers fled in fear,

his steps were resolute,

going to the cross to hit the

mark that I had missed,

finishing his life’s work with

one crowning act of love.

For three hours the True Light was

shrouded in darkness

so that darkness would be no more.

So when my heart reels,

spun about by today’s sorrows,

he comes –

singing a lullaby to his child

jolted awake by the nightmare.

Note by note, he unties my blindfold

until my soul is flooded with the unseen

Light that no darkness can overcome.

And hand in hand, he shows me (he is) the Way.

*the God who sees

Rennes, France

April 22, 2020 (begun April 8, early on in the dizzying swirl of a global pandemic...just some pieces of my heart that have found their way into words. May you, too, hear the lullaby of Light.)

Improvisation

She taught us to improvise with what we have –

shapes sparking exploration of worlds unknown

hidden within our souls and sinews

softly slumbering yet longing to awaken

As the pianist’s notes draw them forth,

colors lodged in memories find expression

in the arc of an arm, a sparkling eye,

pure gold offered in cupped hands

to any heart willing to receive

I take this treasure so freely given

and light spreads its soft tendrils inward,

illuminating a spacious sofa where

I’m invited to sit for a spell

In the warm stillness I come home to myself,

bathed in golden rays of welcome

by the One who calls me beloved

Ever so slowly, an invitation swells up

to rejoin the dance with steps of greeting,

offering my cup of gold to another soul,

like a candle that loses nothing when

passing along its tender flame

April 14, 2020

A poem inspired by a dream mingling with memories of improv dance classes and the state of my heart upon waking in this season of Covid-19 confinement, where we’re being called to improvise in a whole new way.